Tracking Your Press Release and Clipping Services — What is a Clipping Service?

Typically, this used to be a very manual and expensive process that could, at the time cost upwards of $1,000 to track a single press release. This was a tool that was only used by “large corporation” types that had deep pockets.

I read a humorous piece from Myntpr, which is really not too far from the truth as to what and where the term “clip” originated. The article, which was a humorous read says “part of a PR person’s job (OK, usually the interns) was to actually read dozens of newspapers each morning – real, physical newspapers that get ink all over your fingers and everything – and cut out (or “clip”) articles that mentioned their client, paste these clips onto a sheet of paper, photocopy all of these articles and fax them to the client. It was called “doing clips”.

This would be not too far from what a “CLIPPING SERVICE” used to do, and why they were so expensive, mainly because of the hours put in, prior to the digital age.

A more specific and modern explanation, for a clipping or media monitoring service would be from WikiPedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipping_service) which states “A media monitoring service, a press clipping service or a clipping service as known in earlier times, provides clients with copies of media content, which is of specific interest to them and subject to changing demand; what they provide may include documentation, content, analysis, or editorial opinion, specifically or widely. These services tend to specialize their coverage by subject, industry, size, geography, publication, journalist, or editor. The printed sources which could be readily monitored greatly expanded with the advent of telegraphy and submarine cables in the mid- to late-19th century; the various types of media now available proliferated in the 20th century, with the development of radio, television, the copier and the internet. Though media monitoring is generally used for capturing content or editorial opinion, it also may be used to capture advertising content.”

So what is one of the best ways to track a press release online? One way to help, which is inexpensive, and perhaps not the most complete accurate way (it is tough to really replace a human), would be through the use of Google Alerts. Here you can type in your Company name and be alerted when news about the company is mentioned. The problem with this is you may have variations of how your company is spelled and what context it is used. Never the less, for a free service, it can give you a little insight.